UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities

Open lectures covering a wide range of ideas in architecture, design, technology, history and theory. Link…

Lectures, seminars and workshops on topics in the news within London planning. Link…

Weekly seminars in which UCL CASA PhD students, research fellows, honorary staff and visitors present their latest work. Link…

Bite-sized opportunities to sample the exceptional research work taking place at UCL. Link… 

Sustainable Resources for Sustainable Cities

Cities - densely packed, complex, built systems - are home to more than half the of the world’s population. With this trend of increasing worldwide urbanisation set to continue, urban sustainability has been identified as a key area of societal relevance, an area in which a solid research base can inform policy and practice.

Sustainability in the urban context is inextricably linked to resource flows. Among the minimum requirements for a city’s population are housing, food, safe water, waste disposal, and energy for heating and cooling. Cities must draw on global resource networks to provide the raw materials to build new infrastructure, maintain current systems and retrofit existing buildings.

In 2013 the BHP Billiton Sustainable Communities/UCL Grand Challenge Symposium Series will focus on the Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities, with a particular interest in the resource dimension of the many challenges growing urban centres face.

We now invite applications from academic colleagues and research students interested in presenting their research at the symposium.

Interested parties are invited to submit an abstract of up to 250 words outlining the research they would wish to present. We are particularly interested in applications that address issues of sustainable resource use within, or for, cities, especially if they address the themes identified at last year’s symposium “Closing the Gap: Aligning strategies towards sustainable resource use”:

• growing population,
• growth in urban middle class,
• local versus global governance,
• strategic resources (energy/water/materials),
• resource price (increase and volatility).

However, applicants are not limited to these themes.

The Conference Organising Committee will consider all abstracts and make a selection that best represents UCL’s research.

Completed application forms should be sent to h.rand [at] ucl.ac.uk

If you are having difficulty accessing the application form please contact Helen Rand at h.rand [at] ucl.ac.uk or on 0203 108 5935 

Small Grants Showcase and Reception

Festival of Chinese Film and the Body 2012

In the lead up to Chinese New Year 2013, the UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity will be showing four recent Chinese films. 

These will be related to the UCL Grand Challenges themes:  

Global Health, Intercultural Interaction, Sustainable Cities and Human Wellbeing. 

This event is curated by Patrizia Liberati, PhD candidate at Peking University.

The screenings will be presented by three film specialists: in Chinese film, the history of medicine in film, and film and intercultural interaction respectively. 

They will also feature a Q&A session with some of the directors in China. 

Admission is open and free of charge to all members of UCL and registered Friends of UCL CCHH.

The full programme is on the Festival webpage.

The Festival forms part of the new CCHH course Chinese Film and the Body.

Tuesday 15th January 2013

(Dis)Comforts of Home: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Domestic Energy Use

13-14 September 2012

(Dis)Comforts of Home was a two-day symposium held at UCL that explored how comparative cultural perspectives on the concepts of ‘home’ and ‘comfort’ can help us understand, learn from, and influence the behaviour that drives domestic energy consumption.

Contributors to the symposium included:

• The School of European Languages
• Culture and Society
• The School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)
• Geography
• Anthropology
• Science and Technology Studies
• The UCL Energy Institute
• UrbanLab
• The London Consortium
  

As well as paper presentations there will be two documentary screenings with panel discussions.

Transport and the Olympic Legacy: Driving Innovation

6.30–9.00pm 11 September 2012

UCL Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1

The pressure on London's transport systems during the Olympics will drive innovation in the public and private sectors. Innovative ways will be found to spread travel demand and use the road and rail networks more efficiently.

A panel, chaired by Professor Peter Jones from the UCL  Centre for Transport Studies, will discuss these innovations and whether they can be built upon to improve London's transport in the future.

Confirmed panel members are:

• Michele Dix (Managing Director, Planning, Transport for London)
• Natalie Chapman, (Head of Policy, Freight Transport Association @Natalie_FTA)
• Dr Andy Chow, (Lecturer in Transport Studies, UCL Centre for Transport Studies)
• Dr Jon Reades, Research Associate, UCL Centre for Advanced Spacial Analysis

The Long Legacy: London 2062

6.30-9.00pm 13 September 2012

UCL Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1 

What will London be like 50 years after the Olympics? The London 2062 project has asked UCL academics, students and partners from other organisations to look at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. This event is the public culmination of a series of workshops and symposia addressing different aspects of the future of London (organised by Dr Sarah Bell @sarahjaynebell and Prof. Mark Tewdwr-Jones @profmarktj).

The panel will be chaired by Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost Research, and will include eminent speakers who have contributed to the London 2062 project, including:

• Dr Ben Campkin (Director, UCL Urban Laboratory,@BenCampkin)
• Prof Janice Morphet, (UCL Bartlett School of Planning, @janicemorphet)
• Ben Harrison,  (Director, Future of London,@Ben_FoL)

2.30, 30 May 2012

Shaping Cities for Heath: Complexity and the Planning of Urban Environments in the 21st Century

Lancet and UCL Commission

Denys Holland Lecture Theatre, UCL Faculty of Laws

More details about the UCL launch event for the UCL Lancet Commission's report

Watch Professor Yvonne Rydin's summary of the Healthy Cities Commission

Visit the dedicated website for the UCL Lancet Commission on Healthy Cities

Read the UCL Lancet report "Shaping Cities for Health"

19 March 2012

London’s Energy Future

09.00 – 13.30, 19th March 2012

Executive Suite, Front Engineering Building, University College London

Chair: Andy Deacon, Head of Local Delivery, Energy Saving Trust

Speakers:

1. Prof. Paul Ekins, Professor of Energy and Environment Policy, UCL Energy Institute
2. Peter North, Senior Manager – Programme Delivery (Sustainable Energy), GLA
3. Prof. Bob Lowe, Professor of Energy and Building Science, UCL Energy Institute
4. Bob Fiddik, Team Leader - Sustainable Development & Energy, LB Croydon

London’s demand for energy resources comes from three primary activities: heating buildings, transport and electricity. London has always imported most of its energy as coal, gas, oil and electricity. Renewing London’s energy infrastructure will be vital for maintaining our position as a ‘world city’ over the next 50 years as the centres of global economic activity shift eastwards. This event will bring together sector specialists to debate the technological and policy challenges facing practitioners in the coming years to ensure that London has a forward looking energy strategy, that is resilient to major global shifts.

London's Energy Future page on the London 2062 website

4 April 2012

London’s Housing Challenge

09.00 – 13.30, 4th April 2012
Executive Suite, Front Engineering Building, University College London

Chair: Will McKee (Chair, Mayoral Outer London Boundary Commission)

Speakers include:

• Dr Ben Campkin (UCL Urban Lab and UCL Bartlett School of Architecture)
• Sofie Pelsmakers (UCL Energy Institute)
• David Lunts (Interim Executive Director for Housing, GLA)
• Pat Hayes (Executive Director for Regeneration and Housing, LB Ealing)

The future continued growth of London will expose sharper housing differentials in the decades ahead. In 2031, London’s population is expected to be 10.1 million inhabitants which implies a need for about 1.6 million new houses and 1.5 million replacement houses. Numbers and space requirements are but two of the issues here; there will also be new demands and pressures caused by accessibility and the liveability of individual places. This event will bring together leading academics and practitioners to debate how we overcome the immediate financial and delivery challenges facing the housing sector to meet these larger long term challenges for London.

London 2062 Symposium: 2 of 4

20 April 2012

The Future of the London Economy

09.00 – 13.30, 20th April 2012
Executive Suite, Front Engineering Building, University College London

Speakers:

• Mark Kleinman, Assistant Director for Economic and Business Policy, GLA
• Michael Edwards, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL
• Jurgen Essletzbichler, Geography, UCL
• David Fell, Director Brook Lyndhurst

London’s position as a centre of global trade and finance is at once a source of resilience and vulnerability. London’s economy has shown itself to be diverse enough to absorb major shocks so far, but the future of the financial sector is highly significant to the future of London. The future of London’s finance sector depends on the recovery of the global economy and the development of the Asian economies, which may increasingly attract financial as well as manufacturing industries. Past investments in infrastructure and human capital provide a strong foundation for maintaining a position of global strength, though by no means secure it. This event will explore the key actions that need to be undertaken to maintain, grow and diversify London’s economic strength in the years ahead.

London 2062 Symposium: 3 of 4

23 April 2012

The Future of London's Transport

09.00 – 13.30, 23rd April 2012
Executive Suite, Front Engineering Building, University College London

Chair: Brian Collins (Chair of Engineering Policy, UCL Faculty of Engineering Science)

Speakers:

• Prof. Sir Peter Hall, UCL Bartlett School of Planning
• Dr Robin Hickman, UCL Bartlett School of Planning
• Richard Di Cani, Director of Transport Strategy and Planning, Transport for London
• Ian Lindsay, Director of Land and Property, Crossrail Ltdg

Alongside increases in population size and economic activity, demand has risen for all modes of transport across London. Congestion currently occurs on the radial routes into the city, on the orbital routes around the city, and at key points where long distance and short distance commuting traffic intersect in outer London. Air traffic and the use of London’s five airports have also increased. In 2003, the Department for Transport reported that air traffic had increased six fold between 1970 and 2002, to some 200 million passengers per annum. By 2020, the figures are projected to double again. This event will explore the range of potential, modal, technological, and policy responses to these trends to ensure that London develops a sustainable transport system in the years ahead.

London 2062 Symposium: 4 of 4

• The Ingredients of a Zero Carbon Zero Waste City: Evolving a ZEDquarter with examples from the ZEDfactory
• UCL–Lancet Commission on Healthy Cities Symposium
  
• The Global Carbon Project: Anticipating the evolution of CO₂ trends
• Heritage and Climate Change: Protection at any cost? one-day discussion forum

• Planet U(CL): Embedding Sustainability in Universities
• Lessons and Guidelines drawn for other Divided Cities
• Cities Methodologies
• The Future of Urban Studies
• Return of the Slum
• Urban Water Poverty workshop
  

• Launch of the UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities
• Cinema & Climate Change symposium with screenings
• The Age of Stupid screening and panel discussion
• Invisible screening and expert panel discussion
• Growing a New Piece of City: Designing a legacy for 21st-century London panel discussion
• Just Enough: Sufficiency and the cultural imagination one-day symposium